I've seen that in North America for years and I don't think it implies
> VOIP at all ... calls from the U.S. sometimes show local number for
> caller ID when they ring through to my phone, and I always assumed
> (yeah, I know ...) that all it meant was that the long distance link
> terminated locally (and, I would guess, without the correct caller ID)
Yeah. and without proper billing, either.
Incoming long distance calls are supposed to pay per-minute access charges to the terminating phone company, incoming local and intra-LATA calls pay a much lower (often zero) interconnection charge. There have been chronic fights between LECs and IXCs (notably MCI) about long distance disguised as local to avoid paying access.
It's increasingly obvious that you can't tell the difference between the two any more, particularly in the presence of VoIP users who might have local numbers and be a thousand miles away, or vice versa, so I presume removing this distinction is one of the goals of the FCC's inquiries into access reform.